


Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

by Izupie



Series: No Touching. (Unless....) [3]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier Bickering, Fluff, Inspired by Fanart, Love Songs And Being Sappy, M/M, Or Is It?, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie at all times: I just love eddie so much gdi, Soft Richie Tozier, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25311703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izupie/pseuds/Izupie
Summary: They hang out in Richie's room all the time, reading comic books and chatting shit about them, but there's a power ballad sized love song brewing in Richie's heart and at some point he's going to have to let it out.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: No Touching. (Unless....) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1777648
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94





	Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

**Author's Note:**

> This is once again inspired by some art ! This time it's this [adorable Reddie fanart](https://scrunchi.tumblr.com/post/623546507981914112/they-hang-out-in-richies-room-all-the-time-and) by [@Scrunchi](https://scrunchi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. I literally can't get over how much I love the atmosphere in this one. Inspiration struck me for a bit of writing!
> 
> The title and the song used in the fic is [Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxyN3z9PL4) by Starship and it is my absolute favourite 80's song. If you haven't heard it, please go give it a listen. What a bop.

“I’m just saying,” Eddie began again, letting the comic book in his hands fall to his lap with a thump, “that there’s no way a superhero with a mask that only covers half their face gets away with nobody recognising them.”

“Uh, yeah, ‘cause in every other way they look totally different. It’s about the whole package” — Richie snorted a laugh— “ _-heh, package-_ so without the costume nobody can tell it’s them.”

“It just seems dumb that all superheroes don’t use a mask like Spider-Man. And don’t even get me started on Superman. What, he thinks adding a pair of glasses is gonna change his face _that_ much?” Eddie waved a hand in the air to punctuate his point.

Richie would lend Eddie his comics forever if he always got so cute and angry over them.

He sniggered from his place by his cassette player. “I don’t know, Eds, you tell me.” With a great flourish he whipped off his glasses and struck a pose. “Of course, now you know my secret identity I can’t let you leave this room,” he added in a deep voice.

Eddie smiled and scrunched his nose. “Oh yeah? What’s your super-power? Running your mouth?”

“Nah, that’s just my regular-power. Nothing super about that. Natural talent. Born with it, baby.” Richie flexed his long skinny arms and bowed low at the waist muttering ‘thank you, thank you’ as if to an imaginary audience.

Eddie rolled his eyes and an eyebrow hiked up to his hairline. “No, you’re right, it can’t be a super-power if it’s more like a curse.”

“There’s loads of superheroes who’ve got badass powers from curses. I can have pages-long broody monologues like them and that just means I’ll talk more, so joke’s on you!”

Eddie groaned and lay back onto Richie’s bed.

He’d forgotten to make it again, so it was as messy as the rest of the room – floor littered with unwashed clothes he hadn’t been bothered to put in the laundry basket. He always got shit for it when Eddie walked in, but it never stopped him from picking his way over the dirty clothes and lounging all over the bed anyway.

Richie placed his glasses back onto his face, relishing the world coming back into sharp focus again, and returned his attention to the tapes.

“I’d recognise you,” Eddie suddenly said from the bed, after a moment of silence.

“What?”

“I’d recognise you with or without your glasses on. You couldn’t fool me.”

Richie felt a wide, bright smile stretch onto his lips. “Like I’d hide it from you anyway. I’d tell you if I had superpowers, duh.”

Eddie sat back up, surprise in his wide eyes. “I’d tell you too.”

Richie hadn’t expected a genuine response from himself or Eddie, so the hitch in his pulse and the warmth that bloomed in his cheeks was an inconvenience that his poor love-sick brain pushed away instantly with a whip-crack-quick, “After I tell your mom of course.”

Eddie groaned again, even louder, and lay back down. “Jesus.”

_Nice going Richie…_

Eddie scooted further up the bed and lay on his side, so for a few minutes, the only sound in the room was the crinkle of paper as he turned a page of the comic book, and the tapping of plastic tape cases knocking against each other as Richie continued to look through his collection.

Companionable silence… But now he kind of missed the bickering. Richie hated that his brain seemed to short-circuit whenever he encountered a serious conversation about feelings and junk, and then he only regretted it when he deflected it away with humour. There was something too raw and too scary about being open with Eddie though. Too much to hide.

Richie finally settled on a tape, biting the skin on the inside of his cheek as he placed it into the player. Eddie was always brave, why couldn’t he be for once?

The tape snapped into place and he pushed down the play button with a definitive click.

A drumbeat rattled into existence and a twinkling electronic jingle joined it soon after, until a voice sang softly, _‘Looking in your eyes I feel a paradise, this world that I’ve found is too good to be true…’_

“I love this song,” Eddie mumbled sleepily. The comic was abandoned beside him, still lying on his side on the bed, and his head rested in the crook of his elbow.

_I know – I know you do. I’ve heard you humming it to yourself sometimes. You got it stuck in my head and I’d hum it too when you weren’t around, because it reminded me of you._

Instead Richie just said fondly, “’Cause you’ve got shitty taste in music.”

Eddie smiled, but his eyes were still closed. His voice was barely more than a whisper, but he still managed to sleepily hit back with, “Then why’d you… own the tape… huh, asshole.”

Richie snorted a laugh and covered his mouth his hands in case he woke Eddie up. His shoulders shook with the force of the giggle he was trying hard to repress. Everyone said that Richie was the funny one, but there was something about the responses he could get out of Eddie that just sent him into stitches.

 _This boy right here,_ he thought as the music swelled, _this boy’s the funny one. I think he’s amazing and hilarious and I…_

 _‘Let ‘em say we’re crazy,’_ the music sang, _‘I don’t care ‘bout that, put your hand in my hand baby, don’t ever look back.’_

Richie climbed onto the bed and let his dark eyes roam over the peaceful, sleeping face of his best friend. His fluffy hair was a little messed up, and he was going to lose the feeling in his arm if he stayed lying on it for too long like that. Richie mirrored his pose anyway. “Eds,” he whispered, hearing the ballad singing to itself softly in the background, “Eds, hey.”

Shit, Eddie was so _cute._ He could barely stand it. Richie carefully pushed back some stray pieces of brown hair that had fallen over his forehead. When he put his hand back down on the bed, he noticed that Eddie’s was still lying on top of the comic book, and Richie had to fight the urge to reach across and hold it. Instead he let his own hand inch closer and closer, until his little finger touched his friend’s skin so feather-softly and so briefly that he’d pulled it back again before he could really register it.

“You’re gonna freak out about falling asleep on top of my dirty sheets when you wake up,” he said softly, “getting your clothes all wrinkly and getting a numb arm. But that’ll be a fun conversation for later.” Richie grinned and slid his glasses from his face, placing them on top of the comic book between them.

The summer sunset cast the room in a dim golden glow, and the love song quietly reflected the feelings inside Richie’s own heart. It filled the atmosphere with the feelings he was too scared to voice out loud for himself, even if they both slept through it.


End file.
